Page 1 of Dirty Dare

1

Trevor

Off-Season

“Say it with me, little brother,” Tammy sings through the car speaker. “No more jocks.”

“No more jocks,” I groan, turning left onto Old Wildren Road. Never again. And yeah, maybe I have a type, but whatever. I’ll get over it.

The wooded country road twists and turns through another mile before splitting at the hand-painted sign for Little Lake Lane.

“Jesus, what am I doing back here?” My mom, sister, and I moved out of Wildren the summer after I graduated high school and started playing hockey for the Orators, Chicago’s farm team down in Springfield. I loved it here, but after what happened when I left?

Maybe this was a mistake.

Tammy ignores the rhetorical part of the question and huffs.

“Getting out of Dodge so you don’t have to spend the summer living in the same apartment with your cheating, asshole ex.” She takes a bite of something crunchy, probably racing to get some food in her before the baby wakes up. “Retreating to a place where your life was simpler. I mean mostly. You know, except for that.”

Right. That. Cameron Dorsey. The first jock.

First a lot of things.

“We’re not talking about that.” Ever.

She hums. “You sure that isn’t part of why you chose Wildren?”

Why I always crack and end up spilling my damn feelings to my sister, I have no idea.

“Positive.” It’s ancient history, and if I had to guess, that is probably going to avoid me like the plague. That is probably married to a nice woman and has a nice life working in his nice family business just like he was always supposed to.

“Yeah, fuck that.”

I grin. Okay, now I remember why. Two years older, Tammy’s always had my back. And it’s not like I’ve got anyone else to talk to about this stuff. No one else knows I’m a bi professional hockey player who, until a few months back, was in a relationship and living with a teammate for the better part of a year. A teammate whose professional jealousy and private insecurities drove him to betray me in a brutal way.

More crunching sounds through the car speaker, and then I hear Dominic’s tiny squawk as he wakes up from his nap. The crunching gets faster. Tammy gulps. “Anyone know you’re back?”

“Not before today.” I’d been planning to lay low. Hide out in the cabin on the lake and decompress after the roller coaster season I’ve had.

Figured when I ducked into the Sew Shoppe to pick up the keys my old athletic director left me, no one would remember the kid who only lived here a few years. But that’s not how small towns work. “Cora Michaels was working. She says hi. Also, Danny Nobbs just bought his first house. Party tonight. Found out your ex, Tino, got Crystal Miller and Nora Jacobs pregnant three weeks apart—”

“Douche!”

I laugh. “Right? And I’m invited to dinner at my old English teacher’s place next week.”

“Not bad for a just-rolling-into-town, Trev.”

“Guess not.”

Another protesting squawk sounds, and I can practically see my nephew’s little hands flailing and his chubby face screwing up like he’s going to rain down holy hell if he doesn’t get my sister’s full attention soon. Damn, I’m going to miss them.

For maybe the thousandth time today, I question my life choices.

Tammy makes one of those half-laugh, half-sigh noises, and I know that’s a wrap. “I’ve got to go, little brother. Good luck getting all that peace and quiet you were after up there. And good luck with… that other thing too.”

Not going to be an issue. “Love you, Sis. Give the squirt a cuddle for me.”

I end the call and let myself feel being back here. Four years since I drove this secluded road, and my heart’s pounding like I’m eighteen again, heading to the party of the year. Only as my pickup rolls down the quarter mile of crushed gravel drive in dire need of grading, I know the place I’m heading isn’t the same.